TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 5, 2017 -- Summer Under the Stars - Gene Kelly

[Staph]

From the TCM website:
REAL NAME: Eugene Curran Kelly
LIFE SPAN: Born August 23, 1912, Pittsburgh, PA; died February 2, 1996.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Ebullient personality, virtuoso dancing skills.
NOTABLE ROLES: Serafin, The Pirate (1948); Gabey, On The Town (1949); Don Lockwood, Singin' in the Rain (1952).
HOLLYWOOD BEST FRIENDS: Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire

Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- PILOT #5 (1943)
While their buddy flies a suicide mission, World War II airmen recall the events that led him to this noble sacrifice.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Gene Kelly
BW-71 mins, CC,

Rare dramatic appearance for Gene Kelly, this also is the lone time in which he plays an antagonist in a movie.


7:30 AM -- SUMMER STOCK (1950)
A farmer gets sucked into show business when a theatrical troupe invades her farm.
Dir: Charles Walters
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken
C-109 mins, CC,

One one particular day of fiming, Judy Garland was said to be "not in a fit state to work" so Gene Kelly feigned a fall so that she would be able to take the day off.


9:30 AM -- THE PIRATE (1948)
An actor poses as a notorious pirate to court a romantic Caribbean girl.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak
C-102 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

Both Gene Kelly and Judy Garland fought to get The Nicholas Brothers (Fayard Nicholas and Harold Nicholas) included in the movie. They succeeded, but the "Be a Clown" sequence was cut by exhibitors in Memphis and other U.S. cities in the South because it included The Nicholas Brothers, who were black.


11:30 AM -- BRIGADOON (1954)
Two American hunters in Scotland discover a mystical village that only materializes once every century.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse
C-108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene Sharaff, and Best Sound, Recording -- Wesley C. Miller (M-G-M)

To get the effect of Brigadoon emerging from the mist, Vincente Minnelli filmed the sets with the fog being pumped in, then reversed the shot to show the mist moving away.


1:30 PM -- TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME (1949)
A beautiful woman takes over a turn-of-the-century baseball team.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly
C-93 mins, CC,

The idea for the movie was conceived by Gene Kelly, who wanted to pay tribute to the early days of baseball. The movie takes place between 1909 and 1911, as evidenced by Ryan's picture on a new T206 baseball card.


3:15 PM -- THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1948)
Athletic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic adventure about the king's musketeers and their mission to protect France.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson
C-126 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck

Fearing pressure from church groups, MGM had the script refer to Richelieu as Prime Minister rather than Cardinal and almost all traces of him being a cardinal or a man of the church at all have been removed, even though other versions of this story kept Richelieu explicitly a cardinal without any repercussions.


5:30 PM -- ANCHORS AWEIGH (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly
C-139 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll (On 10 September 2001 Kevin Spacey purchased Stoll's Oscar statuette at a Butterfields auction in Los Angeles and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Kelly, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles P. Boyle, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", and Best Picture

For the most famous sequence in the film, Mickey Mouse was originally meant to be the dance partner of Gene Kelly. However, when Walt Disney refused to have his most famous character appear in an MGM film. Kelly turned to MGM's own animation studio and used Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the writer/directors of MGM's "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, supervised the animation for the sequence. The scene initially didn't work as the animators had forgotten to add shadows for Jerry's dances with Kelly. Additional moneys had to be allocated to cover the 10,000 new drawings that would be required.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: GENE KELLY



8:00 PM -- SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)
A silent-screen swashbuckler finds love while trying to adjust to the coming of sound.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds
C-103 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jean Hagen, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

The "Singing in the Rain" number took all day to set up--and Gene Kelly was very ill (some say with a fever over 101). When it was all set up, Kelly insisted on doing a take--even though the blocking was only rudimentary (starting and ending positions only), and the director was ready to send him home. He ad-libbed most of it and it only took one take, which is what you see on film.


10:00 PM -- INHERIT THE WIND (1960)
In the twenties, a schoolteacher creates a national furor when he breaks the law against teaching evolution.
Dir: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly
BW-128 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Spencer Tracy, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Ernest Laszlo, and Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson

When Stanley Kramer offered the role of E.K. Hornbeck to Gene Kelly, Kelly initially turned it down. Kramer told him that his co-stars would be Fredric March and Spencer Tracy, and Kelly changed his mind. This was a risky move on Kramer's part, as he had not yet asked March or Tracy to participate.


12:30 AM -- ON THE TOWN (1949)
Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett
C-98 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Roger Edens and Lennie Hayton

The crew tried to keep the location filming in New York City as low-key as possible. Many of the scenes were filmed from the back of a station wagon. At the end of "New York, New York", as the camera tilts up at Rockefeller Plaza, you can see the skating rink lined with spectators watching Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.


2:15 AM -- IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER (1955)
World War II buddies get mixed up with gangsters and an egotistical TV star when they hold a 10-year reunion.
Dir: Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse
C-101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn

Gene Kelly bought the roller skates for the "I Like Myself" number from "IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER" down the block from his house at Pioneer Hardware on Beverly Drive. He also mentioned that the skates were not altered in any way - they weren't locked to his shoes, so when he tapped in them, he had no help.


4:00 AM -- COVER GIRL (1944)
A nightclub dancer makes it big in modeling, leaving her dancer boyfriend behind.
Dir: Charles Vidor
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Lee Bowman
C-107 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Carmen Dragon and Morris Stoloff

Nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Rudolph Maté and Allen M. Davey, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color -- Lionel Banks, Cary Odell and Fay Babcock, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), and Best Music, Original Song -- Jerome Kern (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "Long Ago and Far Away"

Columbia Pictures gave Gene Kelly almost complete control over the making of this film, and many of his ideas contributed to its lasting success. He removed several of the sound stage walls so that he, Rita Hayworth, and Phil Silvers could dance along an entire street in one take. He also used trick photography so that he could dance with himself in one sequence.

[Docreed2003]

1. Thanks for this heads up! DvR is set! Love Gene Kelly!